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Overview

The Confederation of Crossroads (Comlongish: "De Confed of Crossroads") is the ad-hoc grouping of 59 city-states from Panthal and the Spacers state that formed in RM 2 when the manifold reopened and people from the system realized they would need an united face to present to the outsiders. Ever since the Confederation has been struggling with internal strife and power-play between the various factions, each trying to delay the time when they will have to transfer power to the Confederation or trying to control it.

Despite these problems the Confederation has functioned for a decade and is now doing its first steps outside of its home system, opening new trading route and diplomatic links with the ultimate goal to gain again the extensive wealth and prosperity Crossroads enjoyed during the Republican era.

Stellar geography

The Confederation of Crossroads is located in a single system from which it took it name: Crossroads. According to Spacers Guild's designation Crossroads is system coded Alpha-3, located at the cross of five manifold roads. Systems directly linked to Crossroads through the manifold are: Rubicon (Alpha-4), Shaelia (Alpha-5), Malachite (Alpha-6), Backroad (Gamma-8) and Frog's Head (Gamma-4)

Crossroads star is a single orange dwarf (category K3V) with 5 celestial bodies that could be considered as planets. One of them, Panthal, houses most of the confederate population and is an unique example of an "ocean-planet".

Government and politics

The Confederation is the main political entity in Crossroads system. It was formed in RM 2 by the union of 60 political entities, a union that is far from being as complete as it could possibly have been. The Confederation is separated into two branches: executive and legislative powers. Judicial powers are fully left to each member. The Executive is led by a Vice-President, elected every 5 years, assisted with a government. The President is an honorary title assumed by one head of state of a member every 2.5 years. The Legislative consists in a council with a representative from each member.

The Confederation controls the military - while some city-state retain control on their own, private armies - and regulate many domain coming from trade to research activities within the system. Unfortunately the Confederation is plagued with internal strife and power plays by its more influent member states, especially the largest city-states of Panthal.

Official: Comlong (or Comlongish), a language derived from English and used as the only official language of the Confederation.

Used: English, Arabic, Persian, French, Mandarin, all in original or derived forms depending on each city-state.

Culture

It is rather impossible to describe the Confederation as a single culture. Indeed during the five centuries Crossroads was isolated from the rest of the human galaxy the city-states of Panthal and the space facilities operated as separate cultural entities that slowly drifted away from their common ancestral cultural heritage. Contradictory cultures even emerged.

The Spacers developed a very egalitarian culture that some might compare with the old terran ideology of communism. Several city-states developed culture where women have the most important social role mainly due to an unique ability of their gender : reproduction control. In an environment where survival is difficult, this has lead to major cultural changes, especially in the form of a couple matriarchal societies. If a general trend must be pointed out for the Confederation it could be that women play a larger role than in other societies, often occupying powerful positions.

The most specific cultural group that emerged during the Sundering is the one of the Seawanderers, a group that do not live in the floating cities but only on boats, fishing for food and trade.

Economy

Crossroads’ economy is a complex system that has fluctuated over time to adjust itself to the global conjecture. A resources-based economy in its early history Crossroads changed to a more complete, mixed economy still biased toward industrial goods during the republican era. When the Manifold shut down and the republic collapsed, Crossroads’ economy collapsed as well.

However, due to the specific environments where Crossroads’ inhabitants were living a strong economic interaction started again in a matter of months. This new economic system has been described as symbiotic economy. Its actors, however performing or wealthy they are, are not capable of living on their own without a contribution from other actors. These actors can be divided into two large groups: the Panthalians and the Spacers. Simplifying to the extreme, the symbiotic economy can be described as this: The Spacers need food to live, the Panthalians need materials to maintain their cities. The Spacers have plenty of materials, the Panthalians have plenty of food.

For fifty decades this system has allowed continued human life in Crossroads. If the economy had not changed itself to that situation, all Crossroadsians would have died. In a matter of months for the Spacers and decades for the Panthalians. This economic system cannot be described in terms of free market but was shadowed by a second system, closer to a free market economy, relative to the trade of non-essential goods and services.

When the Manifold reopened the symbiotic economy continued, and it is likely to continue for decades – even centuries – as each partner is still the cheapest provider for the other. Materials imported from foreign systems are more expansive than ones mined directly on Panthal’s moons. While this situation might change in the future with the decreasing prices of space travel, the symbiotic economy is unlikely to completely disappear. Since the reopening of trade with foreign systems both the Panthalians and Spacers have started to export goods and materials and imported goods they are unable to produce.

Being placed on a major trade route, Crossroads benefits from a permanent flow of trade vessels that enter the system. Many vessels stay in Guild owned space but a large part of the yearly traffic – about 40% - leave it to reach Crossroads’ main economic assets: space station Silk Road. The huge station is a central trade nexus where both foreign and local traders come to exchange goods or services, where ships are loaded and unloaded while taking maintenance works at the station’s numerous repair facilities. Many ships that would normally not stop to it, loosing several weeks on their journey through the Manifold grid, still dock to the station so their crew can have some rest and passengers search for business opportunities.

Crossroads’ economy is steadily growing and the system is expected to become a major economic player in the Alpha and near-by sectors.

Military

The Confederate military is a small one, mainly focused on defence. It is divided between a ground force, the Confederate Guard and a space force, the Confederate Navy. The Navy benefits from ancient salvaged or refitted ships from the Republican fleet that where left in the system during the Sundering. Crossroads was indeed at that time the military Headquarter of Sector Alpha and thus always housed a large fleet and many space-born facilities. Most of them are nothing but aging derelicts five hundred years later.

Foreign Relations

Current Issues

History

Crossroads has a rich history being a place discovered early, during the first steps of mankind in the manifold grid.

Ancient times

Crossroads is not the first name bore by this system. When the manifold route to it was first discovered it was unknown it would posses four more. Early explorers immediately noticed the ocean-planet and named the system according to it: Water Crest. The planet was named Panthalassa, an Ancient Greek term meaning "entire sea". This name remained in modern era, especially in its shortened form of "Panthal". The first human population in the system inhabited facilities orbiting Panthalassa and near the Manifold gate. In a matter of decades scientific and engineering teams working on the Gate discovered four more routes which let to a quick renaming of the system to its current name of Crossroads. It was at that time the only system known with so many routes linking to it.

Crossroads was colonized firstly by groups interested in mining opportunities on various system bodies. At the beginning Panthal itself was not seen as a valuable opportunity especially due to the technologic problems linked to the absence of solid ground both above and under the water. When the population on Panthal moons and other bodies reached a certain point it quickly became clear that importing large food quantities was not profitable when a large food source was available so close. Panthal's biosphere was declared safe for human life and the first settlements soon developed.

Large facilities floating on ocean's surface or under it on thermal boundaries came less than a century after the first settlements on the planet. Thousands of people moved to these facilities which developed profitable fishing and manufacturing industries. Factories were moved from space-born facilities to Panthal where they could benefit from endless water reserves, especially in metallurgy. It was a time of fast growing economy, shared prosperity and Panthal became close to what it is now, a planet full of living cities.

It came to an end with the Age of War. Crossroads was engulfed by proxy wars in the Alpha and Gamma sectors and suffered from civil war at the very same time. On Panthal several factions developed and fought for planetary supremacy. At the height of wars a pro-Earth faction took power on Panthal and tried to subjugate the various groups installed in space that remained loyal to their main sponsor Neo-New England. It is during this war that Crossroads knew the worst destructions and losses it would ever know before the Sundering. The war ended when several cities on Panthal were destroyed by nuclear strikes while other forces surrendered to the Spacers. The level of violence reached during this war acted as an electroshock that helped Crossroadians to realize how they were putting their own existence at stake. The system remained in armed peace for the following decades. Fortunately this change happened only a couple of decades before the Age of War ended, allowing Crossroads to remain outside of any more major engagements of the late period.

The Republic

Republican ideas quickly reached Crossroads and found there a listening audience. Crossroads had already started to evolve in several separate cultures and searched for a unifying ideal. Crossroads became a centre for republican expansion in the sector and opened a new period of prosperity after the Age of War dark times.